Gary Wiviott’snew BBQ book published by Running Press (which he authored with food writer Colleen Rush) is based upon his popular web-based course on how to master the Weber Bullet smoker in 5 easy lessons. Unfortunately, because I decided to skip ahead to Step 3 after Step 1, he threw my ass out of the program.

It’s that time of the year again folks — Passover season approaches, and with that comes the annual stocking of the KFP Coca-Cola, the “Real Thing”. I’ve resurrected and updated this post from last year so you can get the jump on it early. Both Coca-Cola of New York and Chicago have just started their production runs, so be vigilant!

– Jason

(Originally posted on March 25, 2006)

In April of 1985, the Coca-Cola company announced that it was re-formulating its flagship carbonated drink, which to the horror of Coke fans everywhere, included a switchover to high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Soon, the rest of the soft drink industry followed suit, and the classic taste of cane sugar-based sodas became practically extinct. Today, only a few small boutique soft drink companies still make sodas with refined cane sugar (or sucrose, made from sugar beets) a costly ingredient when compared with HFCS — but true carbonated beverage connoisseurs know and can tell the difference, as corn syrup has a characteristically cloying sweetness when compared to refined sugar. For nostalgic Coca-Cola lovers, unless you live in a foreign country that classic taste is but a distant memory.

Every late March and early April, for the two to three weeks leading up to the celebration of the Jewish Passover holiday season in the United States, Coke fans living in major metropolitan areas with large Jewish populations get their Real Thing, if only for that brief fleeting period. According to Jewish law, nothing made with chametz(any of a number of proscribed cereals and grains, including corn) during passover may be consumed — so in order not to lose sales from observant Jews during that eight day period, a small number of Coca-Cola bottlers make a limited batch of the original Coke formulation, using refined sugar. Needless to say, stocks run out quickly and fans of Passover Cokehave been known to travel many miles seeking out supermarkets with remaining caches.

Passover Coke products (and Passover Pepsi) in 2-Liter bottles can be distinguished by their yellow caps, inscribed either with just the “OU-P” symbol and/or the words Kosher L’Pesach in Hebrew. The canned variety is rare and is known to be produced only by a scant few bottling companies in the United States— if you can find any, be sure to snap it up.

Coca Cola will again be available with an OU-P for Pesach. Aside from the New York metropolitan area, Coke will be available in Boston, Baltimore-Washington, Miami, Atlanta, Houston, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. This year, in New York, Coca Cola items will be made with an OU-P in 2 liter bottles and in cans. Other locations will have more limited Coke items made in different sizes. All these items, of course, require the OU-P symbol. Most of the bottling plants servicing these markets will designate the Passover Coke items with a distinctive yellow cap in addition to the OU-P symbol on the cap or shoulder of the bottle.

Chicago Coke fans need not worry — this year, the Chicago Rabbinical Council is having Passover Coke made with the cRc P-09 logo on the cap using local bottlers. cRc also has Passover Coke in cans, which is nearly impossible to find anywhere else in the country.

If you live in Cleveland, I also heard this recently from one of our readers:

“As an employee of the Cleveland Coca-Cola Bottling Company I can confirm that the plant does use sugar cane as a sweetener year round. Cleveland Coca-Cola is the exclusive Coke supplier of all of Cuyahoga County, however, not everything available in Cuyahoga County is actually produced in Cleveland. Look at the label and check the ingredients for “Sucrose.””

In addition to Coke and Pepsi products made with real sugar, you should also be able to find nationally Dr. Brown’s, perhaps the best black cherry soda on the planet in Kosher for Passover form. And to further improve your Passover Coke, hit it with a shot of Passover formulated Fox’s U-Bet chocolate syrup.

In our previous hot dog tasting, in the summer of 2004, we evaluated 14 brands of hot dogs which could easily be purchased at supermarket chains in the New York Metropolitan area. Three years later, Consumer Reports released a similar study where the hot dogs from Hebrew National, owned by industrial foods giant ConAgra rose to the top — a result which ruffled the feathers of many seasoned hot dog experts, myself included. The gauntlet (or in this case, the bun) had been thrown down, and it was time for Off The Broiler to dust off its scoring sheets.

Click Here to listen to the supplementary audio (2 hours and 23 minutes) with all the panelists, where we discuss all the hot dogs we tasted real-tine. Includes hilarious bickering and arguing, and the classic “What @#$%& number is it?” Abbott and Costello sketch.

Superbowl Sunday is not just a day to watch a football game on TV. It is a total rejoicing in everything that encompasses the American spirit, and much of that includes tailgate parties.

While our New York Metro-area teams were a complete disgrace this year, a group of us decided we were going to have a good time on Superbowl Sunday anyway. And what better way to do it than indulge in the holy trinity of Superbowl food — Sausages, Nachos, and Wings?

As we needed a team to cheer for, I decided that it would be ‘Da Bears. Why? Well culinarily speaking, Chicago has Indianapolis beat by a fair margin. Not only are they home to what is considered by many to be the best restaurant in the United States, but it is also home to two very important contributions to Superbowl cuisine, the Chicago Dog and the Chicago Style Pizza. And there is also that whole element of Chicago Polish immigrants and their food, and of course, Mike Ditka, also known as God. So we decided that our menu for this evening would pay homage to the Windy City.

First, you need to go shopping.

Ready for a Superbowl Tailgate menu fit for a Superfan? Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below.

In addition to Alinea, Malnati’s and Chicago Hot Dogs, the other place I really wanted to go during my trip to the Windy City was Fogo. In Northern New Jersey, we have our pick of perhaps at least two dozen Brazilian churrascarias, but Fogo de Chão has the reputation for being the very best in the entire country, in terms of both the quality and variety of its meats and excellent salad bar.

The salad bar at Fogo is indeed one of the best I have ever seen at a churrascaria, but don’t get distracted by the rabbit food. You have plenty of meat to eat ahead of you.

These are fried polenta sticks with cheese, also very good.

Fried bananas.

Caipirinha, made with the Brazilian cane spirit cachaça, muddled limes, crushed ice and powdered sugar. Addictive and very dangerous.

The meat parade begins.

Meat!

Meat…

More meat…

Lamb Chops

Beef Ribs

The meat lands on the tables so fast and the servers come at such breakneck speed, that you barely have enough time to get the food off your plate. The photos I managed to take were just the items I was quick enough to photograph, there is at least a dozen different types of meat in the rotation.

This is a papaya/guava mousse dessert with creme de cassis on top. Its meant to help aid in digestion of all the meat.